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What is wrong with their thumbs that they need surgery?

I've written about it before, but in short, they both suffer from hypoplastic thumbs. Daniel has no usable thumbs that can be fixed so he will need pollicization surgeries (you can google this if you want to see more detail, basically they turn their index fingers into thumbs) on both hands. David will need one on his left hand and on his right hand he has a smaller thumb that he can move so the doctors think they can reposition the thumb to make it more useful.

I was called like 30 minuts ago and told we now have an appointment for the 28th!

It's not very noticeable unless you look for it I've found, most people don't notice in person. But if you go back and look at various photos of them you will probably spot it.

The 28th of this month? Or November? I'm hoping this month, so it can be done and they can start healing.

I didn't recall exactly what was wrong, I knew their arms needed extra support due to weak muscles/bones. I didn't recall you mentioning it extended to the hands. It's a shame two wonderful boys have to suffer so many surgeries.

The muscles are fine but one of the two bones in their forearms are shorter, has todo with the thumb thing, the supports where to straighten the arms and have the shorter bone grow more. Which has worked quite well I think. Doctor said the same the last time. It's the 28th this month, we were expecting to hear from them a month in advance, so this was a bit last minute.

They will have to undergo this again for their left hands in the near future, we're just doing the right now so they will have one hand to use in the meanwhile.

I must wish the best of luck to the two little warriors. Even knowing that the surgery is common enough and effective I still can't imagine it'll be easy on kids their age.

Thanks, we're hoping it'll turn about in the absolutely best way it can and that it will be natural looking and natural for them to use as well. Pinch strengtt is likely always going to be quite weak, 20% of norm and movement of a thumb like this will have hardly any side to side movement, the muscles and tendons for that simply don't exist so from what I've read something like 70% dexterity could be expected.

I've been studying my hands though and I can get real good grips on things without needing pinch strength alone, just resting my thumb and using my other fingers gives a powerful grip for things like holding a glass. So I think they will not be really be limited by their hands when they grow up. Who knows what'll be available anyway when they're in the 20s or 30s, like growing entirely new hands or fantastic prosthetics. Assuming they aren't happy as they are, which they might be.

It sounds like you've looked at this from all the angles you know how to. I can respect that and no matter the end results I expect that the boys will do the same.

Been staying at my parents the last few days. We took them out of daycare so they won't get an extremely badly scheduled cold in time for their operations, they're having fun though, really like being at my mom & dads:

What child doesn't love being at Grandma's house?
Absolutely adore the Mickey Mouse pants BTW

Well we're here in the hospital and the boys have had their procedures and are now in recovery. Everything seems to have gone well.

Very good to hear. When do you start getting an idea of how much mobility they will have?

His Divine Shadow wrote:Well we're here in the hospital and the boys have had their procedures and are now in recovery. Everything seems to have gone well.

very happy to hear it.

I'm glad things went well. I'm going to assume there will be some weeks of rehab/playtime to get the boys used to using their new digits?

Best of luck to your boys.

Thanks all, looks like the surgeries went so well that the doctor thinks we might be going home on sunday.

As for the mobility they don't have the tendons or muscles that come with a normal thumb, so they will mainly have a open and close movement. They have also rerouted one tendon form the ring finger they connect to this new thumb, it will help keep the thumb in the right location and give some lateral movement. The ring finger isn't weakened by this.

It seems rehab will mostly be to let boys be boys and have them figure itout themselves.

I know as adults we can easily look at their futures and make a good guess as to how much of a benefit the surgery should have, but given how young the boys are I'm curious as to what they think of the surgery?

Some phone images

Nice to see that they're smiling...but I don't like the visual of them in a steel cage like that. I know, hospital and all but still...

Jub wrote:I know as adults we can easily look at their futures and make a good guess as to how much of a benefit the surgery should have, but given how young the boys are I'm curious as to what they think of the surgery?

They are too young I think to have an opinion on the subject, they don't fully understand what has happened.

Borgholio wrote:Nice to see that they're smiling...but I don't like the visual of them in a steel cage like that. I know, hospital and all but still...

I dunno, given how... Creatively destructive they are, i think we should get them at home as well

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Jub wrote:I know as adults we can easily look at their futures and make a good guess as to how much of a benefit the surgery should have, but given how young the boys are I'm curious as to what they think of the surgery?

They are too young I think to have an opinion on the subject, they don't fully understand what has happened.

That's probably for the best. This way, when they're older they'll not even remember a time before they had their new hands.

His Divine Shadow wrote:

Borgholio wrote:Nice to see that they're smiling...but I don't like the visual of them in a steel cage like that. I know, hospital and all but still...

I dunno, given how... Creatively destructive they are, i think we should get them at home as well

Think how much better they'll be at it ow that they have working thumbs!!

Well the boys are really charming the nurses, running and tossing their arms around some and their constant singing seems to make people take notice of them too. They can just start singing things like twinkle twinkle little star or brother john in their baby language whereever we are.

Now I have a lathe: